In writer/director Kurt Wimmer’s not so distant Orwellian futurescape, emotions have been outlawed. It’s a loveless universe where violators are outed by their spouses and children and taken away for "processing" and public eradication. John Preston (Christian Bale, from American Psycho), the most prolific enforcer of the fascist government, uses a giant ninja nightstick and semi-automatic hand cannons to hunt down and exterminate rebels of the free-emoting underground. He’s lost his own wife to "processing," but after a sequence of stirring encounters, he halts his "intervals" (doses of the mind-altering drug that hinders emotion) and begins to feel.

This set-up is reminiscent of Logan’s Run, with John becoming an insider on the outside and running from his viscid former partner (Taye Diggs), but the single-note plot lists early. Wimmer tries to maintain a pulse by digressing into hoky bouts of Matrix-styled combat. It’s a senseless move, because Bale himself is far more alluring to watch as his newly feeling terminator tries to feign staid emotionlessness. He and Emily Watson, as a fiery renegade keen on nostalgia, provide the only spark in this otherwise soulless adventure. (107 minutes)